Naples - Private tour with Marcello

[Moondawgie]

Thank you Marilyn.

 

Splendour of the Seas - Med

June 19, 2004 from Barcelona

[kasha]

Karen,

What is the other company you decided to use instead of Marcello? I'm still trying to make a final decision for our July 2004 tour. Thanks KAthy

[cactusrose]

So we now have two Eileen's that didn't like Marcello? What are the odds?

 

1952 - Excalibur (freighter)

1972 - Song of Norway, Caribbean

1980 - Hawaii American Curise line, Tahiti

09/01/2002 - Veendam, Alaska

05/29/2003 - Pacific Princess, Alaska

11/26/2003 - Star Princess, Australia/New Zealand

 

5/28/2004 - Star Princess, Venice to Barcelona

 

11/06/2004 - Diamond Princess, Mexican Riviera

 

 

[Host Karen]

Kathy, we decided to go with driverinrome. I have read that they may reduce the rate when you book more than one tour with them. I haven't asked about it yet because I want to wait until we are closer to our sailing. Thirteen months out seemed a bit long to ask my roll call friends to commit to a particular tour or Daniele to a particular price (other than his posted fares).

 

catcusrose, apparently the odds are pretty good. What ebaii (also posting as cruise enthuse) fails to mention is that she and ECboca2 shared the van. This doesn't mean they weren't disappointed with the tour, but ebaii booked it and posted about it on the Star Princess roll call, and then ECboca2 asked if she could share the van. Your reviews would have been more honest, Eileens, if you had disclosed this fact. Initially, I thought catcusrose was being a little unfair in her skepticism, but apparently she could smell a rat.

 

The basic facts remain: find out everything you can about your driver/guide before you commit and be honest about what you do and don't want to do/see to avoid disappointment.

 

Karen

 

[This message was edited by olliekl on 05-14-04 at 02:12 PM.]

[ECBoca2]

I'd like to address the last post.

I was not trying to "deceive" anyone. I didn't know when or if Eileen from NJ would be posting.

But you see we were strangers who shared this tour with Marcello and all of us (the other couple from D.C. - in case they write in, too)all had the same reaction to his service on our day with him.

His emails were always answered in a timely and reassuring manner, but within a short time we realized this tour was not what we had hoped for.

One thing I didn't remember from our last trip to the area was the horrible traffic in the morning. So if you do use Marcello make sure he takes you to Pompeii first.

I think from now on I will keep my opinions to myself and just read the boards instead of trying to help others save time and money.

[Host Karen]

Didn't say you were, ECBoca2. If you read my post again, you'll notice that I'm not contending your disappointment in your tour -- I believe that you didn't get what you expected and that there is no way you could have known what Marcello's personality would be like in advance. However, I did err in taking you both to task for not mentioning that you traveled together. ebaii should have made note of that in her comments.

 

Don't take away from this that you shouldn't share your experiences. The only way other posters learn is by reading positive and negative reviews -- myself included.

 

Karen

[Moondawgie]

I decided to keep Marcello. We have three definites for the price of EURO350.

 

I have a question. Since Marcello is the owner of the company, does he get a tip? If you tip, how much - 10%? 15%?

 

I hope we get Adriano. Is it rude to ask for him?

 

Splendour of the Seas - Med

June 19, 2004 from Barcelona

[MSBYRDY]

I would request Adriano, I don't believe that's rude at all. I specified Marcello or Adriano.

Marilyn

[cactusrose]

Actually. . . I wasn't being skeptical at all, I just thought it was interesting that the names were the same. Since they were both on the same tour and were both disappointed, I think there is validity in what they are saying. I always appreciate another opinion. I think the difference is very often our expectations. I would also like to point out the two Eileen's are probably the first to report back this season on their experience. It is possible that Marcello's "fame" has gone to his head and he isn't giving as good as an experience as he once did. Or the two Eileen's expectations were so built up by the ravings about Marcello on this board and elsewhere, that they felt let down. Whatever the reason, I really do appreciate their candor. We have Marcello booked for June 4th and I will report back on our experience.

 

1952 - Excalibur (freighter)

1972 - Song of Norway, Caribbean

1980 - Hawaii American Curise line, Tahiti

09/01/2002 - Veendam, Alaska

05/29/2003 - Pacific Princess, Alaska

11/26/2003 - Star Princess, Australia/New Zealand

 

5/28/2004 - Star Princess, Venice to Barcelona

 

11/06/2004 - Diamond Princess, Mexican Riviera

 

 

[dperales]

We have booked with Marcello for July 25 Brilliance sailing too. I will definitely report when we return along with my thoughts on using Danielle in Rome and Florence.

Donna

 

Brilliance of the Sea First time to Europe!

[cruise enthuse]

I'd like to apologize first of all for not answering any of the posts for the past week. Several unexpected emergencies came up which needed my full attention. I was quite upset to see that I had been accused of being deceitful. This was definitely not my intention. Yes, I did share Marcello's tour with Eileen (ECBoca2), as well as another couple from D.C. All of us were disappointed with the tour. This was my third cruise to Europe, and I've booked quite a few private tours in the past. I still have to say that this particular tour was the most disappointing of all. I don't mean to be redundant, but it's not enjoyable to sit in a vehicle for "X" amount of hours and listen to the driver repeatedly praise himself. I personally would rather learn about the different sites during our drive. Since I work full time, I don't have alot of extra time to spend on this site. I honestly posted my views to help other cruiseres so that they might have an opportunity not to make the same mistake that I did. I honestly had no other motive than just to be truthful, as I would hope someone else would be for me.

 

 

Eileen Unold

[ECBoca2]

Here is a personal email that I received that I would like to share with this thread .

 

Dear Eileen

I am writing to thank you for having the courage to write your opinion of Marcello on the cruisecritic boards.

I can verify everything you say, from ... experiences I have had with Marcello.

 

I believe that you are right-things have gone completely to his head.

 

 

....Giving a negative opinion on that message board is a risky business, and the one time I tried to tell the truth, I was pretty much shut out by {other posters). Since I have spent so many days in Marcello's company, and they have spent only one day, I am writing to verify your opinion. I usually travel on my own, and have discovered many other wonderful off the beaten track places on the Amalfi Coast, and met some truly lovely people there, so I hape you are able to return there one day and have a wonderful time!

 

Thanks again, and If you ever return to that part of Italy and need suggestions, feel free to contact me.

[ppiew]

We just returned from a Med. cruise and used Marcello for the Amalfi-Pompeii tour. I agree with some posts and not with others. Yes, he DOES 'blow his own horn' far too much, and he also berates tours offered by the ships. This I did not like - it got VERY tiresome. The lunch was very good, but overpriced, and very time consuming.

Now the good stuff: he asked us UP FRONT when we entered his car what we were interested in seeing/doing and said he would tailor our tour accordingly. We left from Naples and did the coastal tour first (less traffic on the steep mountain roads) we OPTED NOT to shop in Amalfi/Positano and went to Pompeii in the afternoon. Although Pompeii was crowded in the PM I preferred that to the stream of traffic on the Amalfi drive. At Pompeii we got audioguides for about 6 euros rather than the private (100 euros) guide. It was a dull recitation of the sites, but certainly informative. Plus, we determined how long we wanted to walk around Pompeii vs. having a guide dictate the time for us. Guides are also readily available at the site if you chose a private guide.

All in all, it was a good tour, very expensive, but still less than the ships quoted tours. Marcello was an excellent driver, but his manner could use improvement.

[ppiew]

Whoops! One more thing - we opted NOT to go to Sorrento as our ship would be there another day and we shopped then. Still think shopping in Sorrento was some of the best in Italy! Plus it is such a smaller port.

[petersonwith3]

ALL: Can anyone tell us how long the lunch takes at the private restaurant--we are trying to decide if we should skip it and ask to see Sorrento instead

 

EC BOCA 2: That email that you attached seems to say that the author had spent multiple days ("so many days in Marcello's company") and was not happy. My question remains: why would you frequent someone that you are not happy with?

 

We will use Marcello on June 5 and I will report back. The opinions provided here (good and bad) will help us plan our day.

 

Tina

 

Carnival Jubilee 5/94

Disney Magic 5/01

Star Princess 5/03

 

Carnival Conquest 12/03

RCCL Brilliance 5/04

[Mermaid 2]

The restaurant is not private. It's a local, family owned restaurant. The food served is delicious, and is made right there. (They have their own garden, and raise animals on the property) Your lunch could take a couple of hours, or more if your want to linger over the panoramic views, and enjoy a glass of limoncello after your multicourse meal.
Lunch in Italy is a relaxed occasion which deserves time, so hope you don't rush through it if you decide to do it.

[SteveS]

We toured with Marcello last summer. We loved it! We didn't want to shop or a history lesson. Yes, Marcello is impressed with himself. And he doesn't like tourist traps, so tell him to stop in Sorento even though it is crowded.
If you love food lunch will be a highlight, if not, grab a snack on the road. It's up to you.

You can read of our day with him here.

We would use his services again.
[url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=927093444&f=109097554&m=250104541"]Trip report[/url]

We would use his services again.

Dawn Princess 11/97
Regal Princess
Grand Princess 7/99
Renaissance R4 7/13/00
Rotterdam 7/20/01
Radiance of the Sea 12/22/01
Royal Princess 8/10/02
Brilliance of the Sea 7/23/03
Golden Princess 12/27/03

[ClaudiaF]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ebaii:
My husband and I recently returned from a cruise to the Mediterranean. After reading these posts, I felt incited to write my review of Marcello, who I also booked as our "tour guide". I expected to get just that...a guide, but instead I disappointingly found out I got the services of a taxi cab driver...and an expensive one for that matter. My husband and I shared the tour with two other couples, which cost us a total of 500 Euros. There also was the cost of the restaurant which was 30 Euros per person. This all translates into a per couple cost of 227 Euros or about $284.00. I was quite unimpressed with the restaurant; and as far as I'm concerned, I feel we could have gone to a much nicer restaurant with much better food for what we paid. For most of the 9 hour tour,we were either in the van or at the restaurant. I don't mean to be a "nit picker", but I expected more from a guide than what we received. If we didn't ask questions about the places we were passing while driving, we would have been given almost no information at. Instead of explaining the sites, Marcello seemed more interested in praising himself, and at the same time, belittling everyone else. Nine hours is a long time to hear anyone talk about themself, especially when you're expecting an informative tour. Marcello did also bring us to Pompeii, as he promised; however he was not allowed to accompany us into the site since he wasn't a licensed guide. I wish I knew this beforehand. I understand that everyone has different interests and is looking for something special in a guide. I just suggest that if you're "shopping" for a guide, you should do your homework, and if you take everything into consideration that you have read, you're more than likely to get someone worthwhile. I do want to add, that the Amalfi Coast is beautiful, so bring alot of film with you. For those out there preparing for their cruises, "Bon Voyage & Good Luck!"...Eileen (N.J.)


Eileen Unold<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

As far as the guide into Pompeii there is a law that only those Guides that are at Pompeii may guide you legally into the area. So even if he wanted to Marcello or any other driver whoever they are are not allowed to do that.
As far as his tour, we did enjoy it. He thinks of himself as above the other "drivers" I'll agree with you there but as far as info.. he never shut up ..we did get alot of information about what we were seeing and then alot of what he said was exactly as you stated - how stupid everyone was, that was his favorite word. Even the people who owned the restaurant were stupid and had no clue about anything..( In our opinion the food was delicious and the place was jam packed with people)..they were kind enough to give us there menus and it had their website on it ( how stupid are they if they have a website?).I do not think that they are his relatives though.Agree that he mentioned alot about all the stupid tourist things he didn't want to stop for us to waste our money on- we made him stop when we wanted to do just that..
The price of 500 EU was comparable to all the other private drivers we had in every port for 6 people and well worth it for an almost 9 hr. day. We had a great day & wonderful lunch at charming restaurant even with his non stop yakking. But that is just my opinion.

Barcelona to Venice on Oceania - "Insignia"
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[Mike Andrews]

Did anyone find out the name of the mystery restaurant ?

[Mermaid 2]

re the name of the "mystery restaurant".
It's always nice to leave a few surprises for others to discover...It adds to the enjoyment of the day. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[ClaudiaF]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mike Andrews:
Did anyone find out the name of the mystery restaurant ?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yes
;-)

Barcelona to Venice on Oceania - "Insignia"
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Buenos Aires to Rio Oceania - "Insignia"
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[CAPinBoynton]

At the restaurant, we had the best pasta I have ever tasted. I asked if I could buy one of their plates as a souvenir, since it has the name of the restaurant on it. The grandfather has a ceramics shop in town, and he makes and hand paints all of their plates. I actually got it home without breaking it, even though it was packed in one of my suitcases that was lost. It now sits above my cabinets in my kitchen where I can see it every day. This is what it looks like.
[img]http://www.thepreismans.com/311%20blur%20pasta.jpg[/img]
Oh, I'm sorry; is the restaurant name blurred out? [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[img]http://www.thepreismans.com/patriotic.gif[/img]


See our reviews and pictures at [url="http://www.thepreismans.com/"]Mike and Carol's Website[/url]

Costa Classica 3/94
Celebrity Mercury 4/98
Carnival Destiny 4/99
Crown Princess 7/01
Norwegian Star 11/01
Grand Princess 12/01
Sun Princess 3/02
Celebrity Constellation 11/02
Brilliance of the Seas 6/03
Navigator of the Seas 11/03
Jewel of the Seas 06/04
Tahitian Princess 02/05

[Mermaid 2]

Yikes, with all the talk and pictures of this restaurant, hope it doesn't drive the prices up, as often happens on the Amalfi Coast when there is so much buzz!
When I first went there back in 2001, it was relatively undiscovered- ah, those were the days.....


[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]

[FANC6]

I just returned from our cruise and we (3 couples) toured with Marcello. Here is my opinion of the day, and please remember it is only my opinion.
Marcello met us at the pier on time(7:45) and asked us up front what we wanted to do for the day- as a matter of fact he constantly asked us for the next hour and a half what our expectations for the day were while he explained his philosophy of touring. He does not like the "tourist traps" and the idea of 100 busses at the same 3 areas of the Amalfi coast (Sorrento, Positano, and Ravello). He feels that there are many other beautiful areas to see and would prefer to take his clients to his real Italy. Like I said, he goes over and over this and does talk too much about himself and why he feels this way. However, by the end of the day I realized that this was just his personality and he is a very passioate man who feels very strongly about his country and has very strong opinions on how southern Italians are dealing with tourism. I won't attempt to try to explain it, but just understand that's why he talks about it for the entire day. I think it is something he needs to work on.
As for the tour, I thought it was great! After we established what we wanted to do for the day he took us exactly where we wanted to go. We were at Pompeii before 8:30 and were one of the first ones in . We got the audioguide and just walked around on our own. Our group decided to only spend an hour there since we wanted to see other places. An hour is not enough to see all of Pompeii but it was enough to appreciate what is there. I'm glad we went in the morning since there was not as many people and also some tours from the ship were cancelled since there was a strike that day and the road was closed. With Marcello we got to go to Pompeii and avoided the traffic problems.
Next we went to Sorrento and again our group decided we would spend one hour there to do some shopping. Marcello did not have a problem with this. Then we drove the Amalfi coast and passed by Positano and Ravello and many other small villages stopping occasionally to take pictures as Marcello explained the area to us. We went for lunch on the terrace of a small restaurant (not the same one that Mike&Carol went to since it was closed that day). We had a delicious home-made meal for 18 Euros each. It was appetizers,2 kinds of pasta,lemon dessert, drinks and limoncello. I thought it was the best meal I had on the entire cruise!
We then drove back along the coast to the shipby 5:30.
As I said, Marcello is unique and he may rub some people the wrong way but overall I thought the tour was great and we got to see the places that we wanted to see. I hope this information is helpful and if you have any questions, ask away! Have a great cruise!

Carnival Ecstasy-1994
Regal Princess-1997
Carnival Inspiration-1998
Enchantment of the Seas-2001
Sea Princess-November 2002
Coral Princess-November 2003
Splendourof the Seas-May 2004

[ClaudiaF]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mermaid 2:
Yikes, with all the talk and pictures of this restaurant, hope it doesn't drive the prices up, as often happens on the Amalfi Coast when there is so much buzz!
When I first went there back in 2001, it was relatively undiscovered- ah, those were the days.....


It isn't such a secret now that I know the name and have been there... have looked up Positano web sites and all of them have some mention of it as a great place to eat.. along with 2 others in that area.
And a piece of info..if you are staying in Positano ( wish we were)..the restaurant will pick you up from your hotel.
Nice touch ;-)
To Carol,
I loved the plates too..
but loved much more what was on them..delicious pastas !!

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